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  about page.

For generations, residents in the East Phillips neighborhood have lived next to — and been poisoned by — multiple sources of municipal and industrial pollution, including residual arsenic from a defunct pesticide factory and hazardous air pollutants from Smith Foundry, Bituminous Roadways, and three highways. When a large vacant warehouse came up for sale, the community made detailed plans to convert the space into an urban farm and community hub. 

But the city of Minneapolis bought out the controversial site from under the community with the intent of demolishing the warehouse and expanding a public works facility and refueling station — that would add even more concentrated pollution to the area. 

After waging a complex, decade-long resistance - in the courts, the city and state legislature and the streets - EPNI and its collaborators hold the opportunity and responsibility to transform the warehouse into a multi-use community hub and indoor urban farm complex, with community care at the core.

Throughout 2024, EPNI has been turning that robust vision into a tangible reality - through intensive fundraising and community outreach, building out community partnerships, and co-creating a novel community ownership structure that puts power in the hands of the people in East Phillips.